A number of Laymon's books were optioned to be turned into movies, but nothing came of it.
Well, almost nothing. A writer/director team of brothers named Clifton and Dwayne Holmes made a rough cut of his book In The Dark back in 2000. It's ultimately incomplete, as it lacks a soundtrack and they ran out of money before production ended, so they were unable to do any ADR work afterwards. But it does exist.
The Holmes brothers cast the movie using local stage actors, and it's very much an amateur production on a shoestring budget, but even though it's not perfect, I really like the way it turned out. The girl who plays Jane is awesome, and since she's carrying the story on her shoulders, it winds up being quite fun.
So give it an hour and forty minutes of your time, and if you enjoy that, then I think I can safely recommend the book it was based on. They even changed the ending for the movie adaptation, so you can read the book and still be surprised. And, not going to lie, I think the movie's ending works better than Laymon's own text. Much like The Mist for Stephen King.
In The Dark is one of Laymon's longer novels though, so if you want to start with something shorter, my other recommendation would be The Stake, which is a vampire story that may or may not actually have any vampires in it at all. It's certainly one of the most unique twists on the vampire trope I've ever come across, and how/if you enjoy that one will pretty much dictate whether or not Laymon's for you.
Wow thanks for this great information! I will give the movie a go first. Man you know your stuff...so good to see!
I try. I found Laymon all the way back in 1995, and he quickly became a favorite of mine. I started getting serious about tracking down all of his novels and short stories in 2000, then I started going for the more obscure, out-of-print, and hard-to-find versions of stuff. He's been an obsession for two decades now. :)